A number of further education and informal education providers offer opportunities for youth to enhance their knowledge and understanding of electoral politics, as well as offering programs that fit into the broader area of democracy education. Many of the most effective programs link the intended learning with the practice of democracy in real-life processes. 

Learning programs encompass a broad range of formats, such as democracy camps and capacity development workshops. 

Example: Transparency Maldives in partnership with IFES ran 6-day Democracy Camps with young people to enhance the participants’ knowledge on civic education, rights and responsibilities of a citizen, democracy, human rights, and various social issues. See ACE Election Materials: IFES Maldives Democracy Camp Booklet. 

There are Master programs in electoral administration such as the Master in Electoral Policy and Administration (MEPA), offered by the Scuola Superiore Sant’ Anna University in Italy. ^[i] The EMB in Moldova offers a MA in Political and Electoral Management. 

There are several informal learning programs that target youth or could be tailored to youth. See Annex: Civic/Voter Education for Young Adults and Annex: IDEA Youth Democracy Academy flyer. 

Example: Promoting Political Leadership of Youth with Disabilities in the Dominican Republic. In 2018, IFES delivered a participatory course to youth with disabilities based on Building Resources in Democracy, Governance and Elections (BRIDGE) “Disability Rights and Elections” module and the “She Leads” women’s empowerment curriculum. Classroom learning is supplemented with hands-on learning and visits to Dominican government institutions and guest lectures from regional experts. See Annex: IFES in Dominican Republic. 

Example: In Myanmar, IFES supported a training program for youth 15–21 years old who were to be first-time voters in the 2020 elections and had no previous civic education either in schools or through other trainings. “Your Voice, Your Vote, Your Future” is a two-and-a-half-day civic education training program that focuses on three key areas: knowledge development, leadership development, and community mobilization. The first two days of training covered topics such as “Elements of Democracy,” “Decision-Making Processes,” “Introduction to Elections” and “Building Your Self-Confidence.” See Annex: Your Vote, Your Future: A Youth Civic Education Program in Myanmar.[ii] 

Example: In Kosovo, a wide-ranging integrated social media, web and activity-based program was developed and implemented by youth-led CSO Peer Educators Network (PEN), assisted by IFES and with the concurrence of the Kosovo Election Commission, whose staff participated in some of PEN’s activities. See PEN’s final report on this in ACE Electoral Materials: Final Narrative Report PEN IFES, and a video overview of the program at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btBMU5zdyu8.   

Major components of the program were: 

• The social media (Facebook https://www.facebook.com/speakinthenest/) and web platform “Fole ‘n Fole” – featuring news, quizzes and videos. Youth were encouraged to contribute to the platform through monthly prizes for video selfies and other contributions; participants’ status upgrades, depending on the number of contributions made, gave access to events with political leaders. Much of the content was video-based: a full-time video journalist was employed to film and post the program’s activities and interviews with youth.
• Meetings of youth with local mayors, and national political party leaders
• Public debates between prominent politicians and youth
• Development of a “Superchangers Guidebook” for youth engagement (see ACE Electoral Materials: “Superchangers”) 
• Mock elections in schools in cooperation with Kosovo State Election Commission municipal offices
• Community-based project development workshops for youth organizations
• Development of a multi-player video game simulating election activities: “Aktivomania,” where participants could role-play as candidates, observers, election staff or voters, and try to win constituencies. This is downloadable for Android and Mac mobiles.

Additionally, IFES implemented a youth research internship program in which young undergraduates developed quantitative and qualitative studies on youth-related election issues. These were done in cooperation with the Election Commission, which provided full access to its data. See ACE Electoral Materials: Youth Voter Turnout, Impact of Hate Speech on Youth, and Participation of Youth in Political Parties (also available through the IFES website) 

Example: In Timor-Leste’s 2017 and 2018 elections, the National Election Commission (CNE), with IFES assistance, produced music videos featuring Marvi, the most popular young Timorese pop star, promoting youth electoral participation.  

See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FV8OuvoE6d4 for the 2018 election video and https://www.facebook.com/2018EdukasaunSivika/videos/645585595651064/ for the 2017 election. 

In 2018, CNE produced another video with IFES assistance that explained how, when and where to vote, featuring well-known young sports stars. See https://www.facebook.com/2018EdukasaunSivika/videos/765310710345218/. 

These videos were posted to multiple social media platforms: CNE, the Technical Secretariat of Election Administration (STAE), UNDP, various CSOs including the Timor-Leste Youth Parliament Alumni (APFTL), and diplomatic missions. They were also broadcast on state and private TV stations and in movie theatres. The audio from the videos was used on national and community radio stations, and on loudspeaker trucks in all local government areas. CNE also organized a youth entertainment segment in its televised election candidate debates, and in 2018 STAE produced theatre-based voter education events in universities in the week before the election. 

The Youth CSO Timor-Leste Youth Parliament Alumni (APFTL), assisted by IFES, developed and implemented a social media and community event–based program of civic education for youth. APFTL met regularly with the CNE and STAE to coordinate messaging and arrange CNE and STAE participation in APFTL activities, and works cooperatively with the Secretary of State for Youth. Major activities have been:

• A civic education social media platform for young people – https://www.facebook.com/pg/2018EdukasaunSivika/. This features election information and news, and is increasingly using video selfies and vox pop video interviews with young Timorese, and also promotes CNE and STAE activities 
• Community radio talk-show programming, featuring local youth representatives 
• Youth Democracy Festivals in each municipality, featuring some interactive workshop content, quizzes with prizes, live music, dance, theatre, competitions for (mainly) school and university groups designing election-related posters and news magazines for youth, and in Dili a national band competition for an election song.   
• Close regular liaison with teachers, and high school and university-based events to promote voter registration and electoral participation
• Targeted SMS blasts to youth in the three weeks before election day 
• In the post-election phase: setting up a Youth Parliament Watch program, coordinated with other governance CSOs. This has included workshops for young people in all local government areas, training them to monitor the activities of their representatives.